Switzerland v. Gyonam-dong Alps

Nevermind that dull tower rising over Pyeong-dong, down the hill; the new Swiss Embassy truly was the last missing piece in Gyonam-dong's jigsaw puzzle. How does it fit? Can it add some soul to a lobotomized neighborhood? First impressions after a visit organized on May 15, just days before its inauguration.

***

In 1974, to build its Embassy, the Confederation purchased a land enjoying a spectacular view over the valley West of Sadaemun's fortress walls, all the way from Namsan to Inwangsan. Over the decades that followed, and particularly the past fifteen years, high rise buildings and apartment blocks have claimed big chunks of it, and 6 years ago the neighborhood was almost totally wiped out to make room for Gyonam / Donuimun New Town and its anonymous towers, destroying priceless wonders in the process (see "In memoriam Samdong Samgeori, Gyonam-dong" ).

The Swiss could have looked for another location, and maybe join such Embassy clusters as Seongbuk-dong or Itaewon / Hannam-dong, but they courageously decided to stay. Well they did move to Hannam-dong though, but only the time to avoid that apocalyptic mutation, and to replace their nondescript red brick lair with something new. Here it is, now facing Gyeonam-dong alps instead of Geumhwasan and Tongil-ro valley:

Photo Erae Architects - Swiss Embassy website

Halfway between Hong Lampa house in Hongpa-dong, and the sanitized* Donuimun Museum Village in Sinumunro 2-ga, the new landmark confirms this section of Songwol-gil as some kind of green and architecturally diverse oasis.

One roof, continuous wings, a central madang... the 2019 Swiss Embassy clearly honors the hanok style, but with a modern, deconstructed twist, and a broken version of the traditional 'ㅁ' or 'ㄷ' shapes:

The open spiral from above (mockup - Burckhardt Partner website)

Logo created for the Embassy inauguration

More an open keyring than a locked up Swiss bank vault, this Embassy wraps you up without cutting you from its environment, providing at the same time intimacy and transparency. The wide windowpanes facing the courtyard enable a dialog between the four wings (multipurpose, chancery, representation space, residence of Ambassador Linus von Castelmur), but the building is also open to its surrounding. Even the metal fence lets you see through. And if some semi-private spaces (cafeteria, living room) display some sort of ceramic moucharabieh, their lace is very wide. The biggest windows point to the sky or surrounding gardens, others direct your gaze to the greenest spots of the New Town, so that you never quite face its dead monoliths.

The outer concrete walls echo modern Swiss heritage, but wood is omnipresent, with epicea ceilings, staircases, slabs, and pilars. The lightness of the roof and structure, boosted by a gigantic sail cast over half the courtyard, could be achieved by the burial of most technical machinery in dedicated basement corridors. We also visited the nuclear shelter, compulsory for public structures of a certain size in Switzerland, but maybe not that irrelevant this side of the DMZ.

This environment-friendly building collects heat from the underground (30+ geothermal pumps), power from the sun, and water from the skies, sometimes in an artistic way, thanks to Lena Maria Thuring's 'Water connections' installation, where metal chains direct part of the flow from the rooftop to hanging stones and surface channels:

The visit was led by architects Nicolas Vaucher (Burckhardt Partner), and Lee In-ho (Erae Architects). Obviously, I followed the former:

Nicolas Vaucher in the madang, the staircase, the cafeteria, the nuclear shelter, the machinery, the residence's garden, the representation's dining room, the cultural section, the entrance.

Six years ago, I thought that all of Gyonam-dong's seven neighborhoods would disappear for good. They will never be brought back, but at least, somehow, part of Songwol-dong continues to exist under a new form.


Seoul Village 2019
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* see my lukewarm review in the "Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017" focus

In memoriam Samdong Samgeori, Gyonam-dong

I often say that you can't shake off Seoul any more than you can shake off death. And if there's a moment when both get at your throat out in the open, that's in the sad limbo of a ghost neighborhood about to be destroyed.

Unfortunately, I've experienced that draining and gloomy moment too often in too many parts of Seoul. I could even recycle for Gyonam what I wrote on these lines four years ago, about "Wangsimni Old Town":

• "Most buildings have been evacuated now. Some have already lost all window frames, exposing their skull with empty sockets staring at nothing. Large plastic drapes cover the first row to prevent people from trespassing or ghosts from leaving the area.
• Yet, I almost prefer that state of redevelopment to the previous one, when human beings roam lifeless streets, when only a few merchants remain open to get the most from compensation schemes, even if only a few customers dare pass by. That's the actual ghost town."

Still lying between Dongnimmun and Donuimun*, Gyonam-dong has reached these final stages of ghosttownhood, and over the past months, I never found the courage to venture beyond its main arteries (Gyeonggyojang-gil, Songwol-gil...). My heart ached enough just watching from a distance (Tongil-ro, the elevated road between Sajik and Geumwha tunnels...) the neighborhood progressively abandon life. And I couldn't bear imagining my favorite places after the evacuation.

You simply can't get used to this experience, and the feeling grows worse each time. Plus I had that special bond with Gyonam-dong, particularly since I used to live nearby, just on the other side of the fortress walls.

Then came the news that a few friends would visit what was left of Gyonam. Not scavengers looking for a thrill or a good shot, but fellow Seoul lovers who care for the soul of old neighborhoods. I probably would never have had the guts to come back otherwise.

Well I still felt nauseous most of the time, but I'm glad I joined. Grieving is much easier when you're not alone, and it's always better to come to the bedside one last time. If not for the soon to be departed, at least for your own comfort.

Except that when you visit a dying old friend in the hospital, you don't spend your time shooting pictures of his ravaged face. These series of empty sockets, suspended calendars, bleeding tiles**, or gutted hanoks are as absurd and obscene as deathmasks:





... but I had to let it all out. Not everything, of course, but at least big chunks of it - I'll probably have to regurgitate more bits somewhen, along more ill-written posts or fictions.

*

I'd already accumulated a lot of dark moments here. This urban annihilation process always takes many years, even after the final decision is made. Note that it also includes construction phases. I'm not referring to the park created a couple of years ago when they restored the fortress walls and the house of composer Hong Nan-pa: this section doesn't belong to the future Dongnimun New Town / Gyonam New Town. What I meant is that certain speculators seize the last opportunities to build bigger houses in order to get higher compensations, replacing for instance a hanok with a three story "villa" hosting several tenants.

Now it's sure: no hanok will be spared. And no architectural wonders among the few survivors: the dong office, the church, the Swiss Embassy (at least it's low-rise and has a few trees), and the only existing apartment block in the neighborhood.

The decision not to include the Dong-A Apartment in the New Town came very early: adding a relatively small piece of land divided among many owners would have too much changed the equation for the other residents. Of course, in a country addicted to big blocks, the value of traditional houses remains hard to fathom. Still, until the very end, I hoped something would be done to save a few hanok - why not the short stretch around the Dong-A, precisely? Or even better: one of these more charming alleyways... but no. Not even a fake hanok to ease the consciences of future tenants (see "Build a hanok and they will come - Marketing impostures and genuine slow urbanism").

Not one single element to honor Gyonam-dong's soul in the future New Town. You'll have to cross its boundaries to see the last echoes of lost eras: a few have been saved and more or less well enshrined (Hong Nan-pa's place in a garden, Gyeonggyojang*** in Samsung Gangbuk Hospital...), but most remain endangered species (Dilkusha****, Yeongcheon Market...). To get a decent salute, we'll have to wait a bit and wish for a Gyonam-dong exhibition at the Seoul Museum of History.

So Gyonam is almost dead, and its corpse will soon be totally discarded. The neighborhoods that used to compose it***** will only remain alive in our memories: Gyobuk-dong, Gyonam-dong, Haengchon-dong, Hongpa-dong, Pyeong-dong, Songwol-dong. And if the names survive, they'll tell a completely new story, where former residents will be projected in a new high rise utopia.

Gyonam is almost dead, but during these final days, life goes on: birds, cats, unkempt trees and flowers, the odd humans (last residents, squatters, old friends...).

*

I said goodbye to some of my favorite parts of the neighborhood, and of course to "Samdong Samgeori", where the street forms a cute "bell curve" (urban planners would call it 'Gaussian', but we're in Jongno, and that should ring a bell). I call it Samdong Samgeori because it's at the intersection of Gyonam-dong, Hongpa-dong, and Songwol-dong.

I spent hours there, just to enjoy the place and its atmosphere, sometimes from up the street, watching people and bikes pass by. In the late afternoon, when the light hit the tiled red and yellow buildings around the central hanok cluster, the colors would explose, and the area grow even more mystical.

For this last visit, the barber shop sign was still hanging, but the bikes long gone. We could see the place from above, and marvel at the amazing pattern drawn by merging hanok roofs.

Like the last character of some dying language.


Seoul Village 2013
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* see "Donuimun Restoration and Sadaemun Resurrection" (2009/10)
** see towards the end of the video, the hanok roof tiles bleeding their clay (about this architectural detail, see "Am I My Hanok's Keeper? Peter E. Bartholomew's Defense and Illustration of Korean Architecture")
*** see "Gyeonggyojang back to Donuimun"
**** see "Sajik Heights and micro-hanokization"
***** see "Jongno-gu dongs". Yes, Haengchon-dong stretches far beyond the New Town limits, but I haven't seen many hanok on the other side of Sajik-ro.

Gyeonggyojang back to Donuimun

It's always a bit strange, when I go see a doctor at the Samsung Gangbuk Hospital, to know the reception desk used to be the home of Kim Gu, head of Korea's provisional government, between the 1945 independence and his assassination in 1949, in that very same building, renamed Gyeonggyojang ("Capital Bridge Mansion") as a tribute to that period.

Typical of the Western-Japanese architecture from the occupation years, Gyeonggyojang was built in 1936 by a flamboyant Korean collaborator who offered it to the national hero as a smart flip-flop cover-up. It later became private property and now belongs to Samsung Insurance, who agreed to empty it and return it to the public.

The transformation into a museum (located in 108-1, Pyeong-dong, Jongno-gu) will finish next year but on August 15th, a limited number of selected visitors will be allowed to explore it for the national anniversary.

This old new landmark will provide a perfect purpose of visit on this side of Donuimun : as we saw earlier*, the gate will be restored where it was, precisely in front of this hospital, and I hope Samsung will seize the opportunity to make the complex a bit less overwhelming.

Seoul Village 2010


* "Donuimun restoration and Sadaemun resurrection"